How to Measure your Podcast

Podcasts have been around for as long as we care to remember. Not only has podcasting seen a boom as of late, it’s become a go-to for learning and communications now that there is a rise in mobile usage made available for everyone.

Internet radio. Remember? It was a thing before streaming music services! Now the internet radio platform has been reborn as podcasts. They are all over the place. The reason is simple: with the democratisation of information, users are not just interested in listening to streaming music channels but also talks on certain topics. With the global access to smartphones with 3-4G, podcasts are easy to listen to while you are in travelling. But should you start and how to measure your podcast’s success?

IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY

As an internet marketer saying goes: you should choose the best platform for your content. Or, you should convert your content to each platform. Podcasts are not for everyone and every type of content. Video is a visual storytelling tool; social media channels are snaps of information and anthology and culmination of content. But podcasts are discussion platforms. You are talking so only pick podcast as a platform if you have something to say, more-over, if you have something to discuss with someone else. It’s a conversation platform, you can’t just have 1 guy talking to the microphone, alone.

Not all messages and campaigns and brands are able to enter podcasting. But if you are a thought leader, you have certain topics to discuss, then you can start thinking about getting a podcast.

Now this post is not about how to create an effective podcast but about how to measure it, once it is up there.

INTEREST AND LOYALTY – VALUE – ENDORSEMENT

Ultimately your podcast has one goal: make you more popular, therefore make your topic more popular. No matter you are a life coach talking about transformative changes, a stock broker talking about stock market or a marketer talking about business hacks – ultimately you want your topic (and you) to be more popular. Get the word out.

For a podcast, you have three ways to measure your popularity.

Interest and loyalty

This is the focus. You need to measure how many people are listening your podcast. Same as video channels, you have the same metrics.

How many people subscribed to your channel

How many people downloaded OR streamed your podcast

How many people listened your podcast at all

With these hard figures, you will get the idea how popular you are.

Now when we are speaking about how many people listened your podcast, we want to know not just how many people started to listen to your podcast but also how many people listened the whole session through. This shows loyalty for us because they care about your topic and found the discussion engaging and interesting.

Value

Now you know how many people are passively listening to your podcast but that’s not at all enough. You want to know that you bring value to their lives. Anytime you bring value there’s a big chance that people will thank you for it.

Saying “thanks” can come in different forms. Leaving a good review on your podcast. Commenting on your platform. Inviting you to collaborate. There are some hard figures and soft measurements that can tell you, you are bringing value to other’s table.

Endorsement

When you are really bringing value, you need to check how much of an impact you made. Users who listened to your podcast and already said “thanks” can endorse you on external channels. Check for social media referrals, social media mentions and your impact outside your owned channels. If you see many users sharing your newest podcast on Twitter, it means you made an impact and you are on the right track.

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